Lydia Thornley

British, b.1960

East London based artist Lydia Thornley has multi-stranded practice in graphic design, creative direction and sketching. Drawing was, for decades, the unseen part of Lydia’s design work – the thinking on paper, the workings-out.

BIOGRAPHY

East London based artist Lydia Thornley’s drawing is part of multi-stranded practice in graphic design, creative direction and reportage sketching. Trained in graphic design in times of specialisation, drawing was, for decades, the unseen part of Lydia’s work – the thinking on paper, the workings-out, the roughs. Then Lydia became a sketcher by accident. Designing a studio booklet ‘This is shorthand’ about drawing as part of her design practice, she was challenged to do a drawing a day until it had to go to press. But she didn’t stop…

 

Lydia has a particular interest in looking through drawing and her work often includes notes. Her quick, gestural style is used for sketching live at events, in nature and in urban locations; investigative drawing for research; mapping places and processes; illustration of organisations’ work; and portrait sketching. Her personal work includes ‘Dispatches from a Small World’, a nature reportage project from her London garden. Lydia also guides sketchwalks and sketching sessions. Lydia likes readily-available materials and often works on waste, handed-down and repurposed paper and board.

WORKS
Live sketching, LMS100, 2017

Live sketching, LMS100, 2017

Live sketching, Disrupt Space, 2021

Live sketching, Disrupt Space, 2021

Live sketching, Bowen Craggs Conference, 2019

Live sketching, Bowen Craggs Conference, 2019

Trampery Old Street (from Trampery Instagram takeover), 2019

Trampery Old Street (from Trampery Instagram takeover), 2019

Hackney Wick from the Greenway, 2019

Hackney Wick from the Greenway, 2019

Hedgerow (from 26 Habitats), 2021

Hedgerow (from 26 Habitats), 2021

Fresh Water (from 26 Habitats), 2021

Fresh Water (from 26 Habitats), 2021

Geese and a Gull Grooming, Three Mills, 2022

Geese and a Gull Grooming, Three Mills, 2022

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